Some of you who live in close proximity to me have already either a.) noticed that I am especially crabby and impatient as of late, or b.) know that something is wrong with my lower jaw. For the rest of you, because your life isn't exciting enough without hearing me kvetch about another bizarre physical ailment, I'll elaborate. I will give you the short version though because it's hard for me to focus on anything for very long. I am taking a lot of drugs.

I began to feel pain in my lower jaw, left side, the Sunday before last. Since the pain was constant and affected by cold I thought it might be an abscessed molar, having had a crown put on one in January to rescue it from being almost completely cracked in half. However X-rays showed no abscess. Since am a clencher and a grinder, the dentist thought perhaps the crown was too high, putting my bite off-kilter, and during my sleep I might have clenched so bad one night that I overstressed the muscles & joint. He ground the crown down a bit to lighten my bite and warned me I'd still have several days of pain.

Understatement. I have been taking Advil, Naproxen, Tylenol 3, and Robax Platinum in shifts (plus a couple of other drugs to help me sleep, which aren't working very well) steadily for 9 days now, in controlled but regular doses because the pain is constant. I'm losing a lot of sleep, and my internal editor isn't working very well. Applying a warm cloth helps somewhat, but of course I can't have it any hotter because it's too near my face. The pain has decreased slightly over time, although I do have better days and worse days. Went to see my GP yesterday and she thinks the dentist is right. However there's nothing for it but to keep popping anti-inflammatories and painkillers, eat only soft warm foods, and be as vigilant as I can about keeping my jaw relaxed. In the meantime my attention span and temper are extremely short.

Amusing though, the look on the pharmacist's face. I picked up more pills today and stopped to ask him about applying heat - I had been wondering if one of those athletic heat ointments might be a solution, since I could better localize the warmth. He looked at me like I had suddenly grown antlers, then smiled and told me to go home and double up on my Advil. You know you're whacked when ideas like that start sounding good.

i'm wondering if you bruised your jawbone. bone bruises are extremely and constantly painful, and the pain usually lasts for a couple to a few months (unfortunately). given that you've not seen any significant abating of the pain for almost 2 weeks now, i wonder if that's what it could be?

Hmmm, yeah, that sounds like something that would happen to me, alright. :P

I'm still wondering if it is an abscess, and it was just to early to see anything on the x-ray at the time. I go in for a cleaning on the 22nd so I'll get the dentist to take another. But I think you're probably right, I've just done something nasty to the bone. *sigh*